Mr. Alidad Hassani (Engineer), born on March 3, 1957 in the city of Shiraz is a human rights activist, and one of the first people who protested against the discriminatory laws against women and one of the members of the One Million Signature Campaign. The goal of the One Million Signature Campaign is to gather One million signatures in support of changing discriminatory laws against women in Iran. Mr. Hassani was attacked and arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence Officials in July 7th 2007.

During interrogation Mr. Alidad Hassani was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture by the Ministry of Intelligence Interrogators. Both Mr. Hassani and his family, including his wife were put under great pressure in order to keep quiet and not to report Mr. Hassani’s situation to any human rights organizations.

Mr. Hassani was also personally threatened by the prison warden that if he or his family were to report his situation to human rights organizations, he would be transferred to the most dangerous section of the prison where those convicted of murder and other highly dangerous crimes are imprisoned.

It must be noted that Human Rights Watch has reported on Mr. Hassani’s situation including the circumstances of his arrest and charges in their 2007 annual report. After extensive interrogations Mr. Hassani was transferred to the “Adel Prison” in the City of Shiraz. For a number of months after his arrest he was deprived of even his most basic rights including the right to a lawyer and the right to visitation with his family.

Later on a lawyer named Mr. Karim Sadighi took on Mr. Hassani’s case and was able to get him bail in the amount of 100 million toman. This amount however was too high for the Hassani family and Mr. Hassani remained in jail for further sometime until the bail was reduced to 50 million toman and he was released on bail on December 7th 2007.

However Mr. Hassani’s freedom was short lived and on January 14th 2008 he was summoned to the Revolutionary Courts again.

Mr. Hassani had originally been charged with organizing anti-regime gatherings, making anti-regime speeches, acting against national security and being in contact with anti regime organizations outside Iran. No further charges were laid against him on January 14th 2008 when he was summoned to court however he was re-arrested and sent to prison.

His family who attended at the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz in order to obtain information about his whereabouts and to arrange for a visitation were faced with extreme brutality by the police (Niruye Entezami).

21 days after his arrest Mr. Hassani was still not allowed to have visitations which caused great concern for his family who were extremely concerned about his health and well being.

On February 6th 2008 Mr. Sadighi was finally able to secure Mr. Hassani’s freedom from jail. Upon his release Mr. Hassani stated that once again he had been subjected to the most brutal physical and psychological torture in order to coerce him into doing a televised confession. However in spite of the torture Mr. Hassani has refused and indicated that as long as there was discriminatory laws in Iran he would continue his human rights activities.

Soon After his release Mr. Hassani’s son Kamran Hassani was arrested on March 9th 2008 on the charges of drawing caricatures which insulted the Supreme Leader and other high government officials.

Since his arrest there has been no information about his whereabouts or well being. A few days ago the Hassani Family received a threatening phone call indicating that Kamran would be killed if they were to inform any human rights organizations of the current situation of Kamran.

They were further threatened that since Mr. Alidad Hassani’s case had not yet been finalized, he could be sentenced to death if he or his family tried to contact any human rights organization in regards to Kamran’s situation.

It must be noted that the oppression of human rights and political activists in Iran has greatly increased in the past year and many have been sentenced to long prison terms and even execution.

We urge all human rights organizations to take immediate action to help the Hassani Family and in particular to ask for the immediate and unconditional release of Kamran Hassani.

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About This Writer

Sayeh Hassan is a criminal defense lawyer with Walter Fox & Associates and an Iranian Pro-Democracy activist. She is the author of the shiro-khorshid-forever blog (www.shiro-khorshid-forever.blogspot.com) which focuses on the pro-democracy movement and Regime Change in Iran. Through her pro-democracy activities she stays in close contact with activists in Iran as well as retaining contacts with various human rights and pro-democracy organizations abroad. She regularly speaks at conferences, has appeared on television and radio programs and her writing has been published by publications such as National Post, Toronto Star & Ottawa Citizen. She can be contacted at sayehhassan30@gmail.com